Pages

Tuesday, February 5, 2013

Tucker Tuesday ~ My Roast Chicken

One of my fave meals to cook is a roast chicken. It's fairly quick, for a roast, tasty, feeds many when plumped out with tonnes of veg, and looks rather impressive for little effort.

This is the roasting tin that I use for my roast chicken. I can fit one large chicken in here or even two of the smaller, twin pack, chickens. The roaster was mum. I remember it well when we were growing up. She bought it in one of those promotions they had at Woolies I think. Where you got stamps for every $5 or $10 you spent. Then could buy parts of a dinner set with so many stamps. I remember she bought the whole dinner set and the whole baking and saucepan set. This is all that remains though. Mum always used this to make her chop casserole!

First up make your seasoning.

I do all of mine in the food processor.

I chop half a large onion and about 6 dried apricots.

Place into a large bowl.

Add 4-5 slices of stale bread, I use multigrain as that's what we eat, but use whatever. Process to make breadcrumbs.

If you already have some breadcrumbs use about 2 cups, but don't use the dried variety you get at the supermarket.

Add the breadcrumbs to the bowl, along with a handful or two of sultanas and about 1 tablespoon of dried herbs. I just use a mixed herb mix, but use whatever herbs take your fancy.

Give it a good mix. Add an egg and mix through.

The mix will be still rather crumbly but if you add more egg you will taste it.

This makes enough for two good sized chickens. If you aren't cooking two chooks, then you can freeze the remaining stuffing in a freezer bag for a month or so.

Stuff your chicken and tie up the legs.
Rub chicken all over with seasoning of choice.

Place in roasting dish on a trivet. This will help to keep the chicken out of the juices as well as stopping the skin sticking to the dish.

I have found that this is the most yummiest seasoning to use on the outside. It's just under $3 for this container and I get about 5-6 chickens from it. Rather economical.

Add about 1cm of water to the bottom of the dish and any veg you want in there.

I roast my veg separately, but onions need longer cooking so I add them to the meat.

Cover and put in the oven.

Oven should be preheated preferably. I cook mine on 150C for about 90 mins. Then take the lid off, remove the chicken to a chopping board, drain off the juices (to use later for gravy), replace the chicken and add some more water ( so it doesn't burn).

Crank up the heat to about 180C add the chicken back to the oven but don't cover.

This is when I put my veg in. Bake for another hour, until chickens and veg are cooked.

While it's cooking I make the gravy (another post for another day) and prep any steamed veg.

Cooking the chicken this way makes for a crispy yet moist chicken. The water in the bottom with the lib on steams the chicken but allows for some crisping too.

About Me

Hi! I live in beautiful Port Elliot with my fiance Brian and three of our four gorgeous boys. Randall (18yo), Ethan (5yo), Eli (4yo).
I love to crochet, scrap, bake and strive for a simple homemade life.